Saturday, August 18, 2012

Butterfly Kisses Anklet

I need a new anklet. I wear mostly capri style pants all year long and am almost always sporting an anklet. I know from experience if I want one, I need to make one. If I were to buy one, it would last about a week and then I'd have lost it or would be fixing it. Why? Because I will wear it until it falls off my body. I wear it to bed, with long pants, in the shower... it'll need to stand up to a lot of abuse.I realized I have been ignoring my jewelry desk for quite some time. Mostly because it was buried under piles of stuff I was busy with other fun stuff, but now I am ready to play. This is my unorganized jewelry making cabinet that I'm only a bit embarrassed for you to see..

and the edge of my jewelry desk with my tools on it:

Time to get to work! (This is not a tutorial, by the way. I'm not opposed to doing one if you'd like to see it (comment and let me know), but this skips a lot of how-to steps and just assumes that if you are here to follow along you already know basic jewelry making skills and where to buy supplies. It's more of a documentation of my process. Going from "I think I want to make this", through the planning and creating stages to the finished project.)

I pulled out my box of chains. I recycle old chains from jewelry I no long like or that has been broken, but I also have new chains in here as well.

After rifling through it, I find some old chains and links that I think I might want to use:

I end up putting back the chain at the top. Too delicate for what I am needing. The larger chain on the right is not long enough, but if I add in the links on the left, it will work.

Now to come up with an idea. I usually go through my stashes of stuff and look for a focal point. Either a unique bead, a charm, or just a color scheme. I have been into butterflies lately and decided to make that the focal piece on my anklet. I find one large butterfly charm, and two smaller ones. I grab some beads in colors that make me think of butterflies and my bead board and start planning.

I usually make my anklets around 9 inches long before adding the clasp. Bead boards are great because of the markings and the grooves that hold everything. The large butterfly is in the center and then I space out the links and charms, knowing I'll be filling in with pieces of the chain I pulled out.

I use wire to make connections for the charms and to add beads to the design. I like to do wire wraps on both the charms and when connecting it to the anklet, it is so much sturdier than just a jump ring attaching it. These will only come off if the metal is worn through.

Cute right? (please ignore the Cheetos bag in the background :0) It looks great, measured it and it fits - but it's a bit boring. I wanted more color so decided there needs to be more beads and more dangles - a dozen should do it.

I won't tell you how long it took me to attach all the dangles, mostly because I don't know for sure - but the sustenance I'd gotten from the Cheetos was long gone.

TA -DA! It's done! It looks pretty good on, however I can't get a good angle taking a pic of my own ankle so you are just going to have to imagine it. Thanks for visiting, I hope you had fun seeing into the process. It was fun getting back to my jewelry... anyone need any earrings or anything??